The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) today announced that it has cancelled the Australian Financial Services (AFS) licence of Starfish Financial Services (Starfish).

Starfish has held an Australian Financial services licence since October 3, 2017, which allows it to handle interests in managed investment schemes to institutional clients. The regulator clarified that the reason for the cancellation of the licence was that Starfish had failed to maintain the required organisational capacity to provide the financial services covered by its Australian Financial services licence and had failed to meet its financial reporting obligations.

The Australian regulator noted that Starfish may provide financial services reasonably necessary or incidental to the winding up of its funds until April 30, 2023.

ASIC has suspended the Australian financial services licence of Cartesian Corporate Finance Limited (Cartesian) until 25 August 2023 because Cartesian has ceased to conduct financial services business.